As 20 horned cattle approached, Sturms stood along the fencing that lined the straightaway at Hawthorne Racecourse. Nearby, his friend Mark Peacock used a camera strapped to his chest to film the animals darting past and the humans leaving the relative safety of the fence to jog in futile pursuit.

“It was more like running after them,” said Peacock, who nonetheless planned to run again later in the day.

In all, organizers estimated that 3,600 people ran with the bulls in six separate heats. Most escaped with nothing worse than muddy shoes, but a few ended up on the wrong end of a horn.

Rob Dickens, the lively emcee for Saturday’s spectacle and an executive with Great Bull Run LLC, the company that put on the event, said one person was hit on the leg with a horn and suffered swelling. Another, he said, ignored instructions to stay out of the middle of the course and ended up getting thrown to the ground. It was unclear whether that runner was hospitalized.

Alphonso Allen figured he had an extra layer of protection beyond the on-site first aid staff if something went wrong during his run.

As it turned out, the 45-year-old from the South Side escaped unscathed and satisfied.

“It was always on my bucket list,” Allen said, “and this was a lot cheaper than going to Spain.”

Before each running, Dickens gave a quick safety lesson that minced few words. Look behind you to see if more bulls are coming, he instructed, and cover your head if you fall down.

“Obviously, the closer you get to the bulls, the more exciting it’s going to be,” he told the runners. “The closer you get, the more likely you’re going to be underneath them.”

Like in Pamplona, not all the cattle were technically bulls. (A few were steers.) And like in Pamplona, the promise of thrills commingled with the risk of injury.

Earlier this week in Spain, a Chicagoan was gored and seriously hurt during Pamplona’s annual San Fermin Festival. Bill Hillmann, who recently authored a chapter in a book on how to survive bull running, told the Tribune on Wednesday that he expected to recover from a horn that went all the way through his thigh.

That grim news didn’t cast much of a pall on Saturday’s bull run at Hawthorne, which sits near the border of Cicero and Stickney.

“It was awesome,” said Keith Vallow, of Harvey. “Just the excitement and the adrenaline that gets going. Awesome.”

SANFORD – Two 17-year-old Winter Springs High School football players accused of taking part in the gang rape of a teenage girl were back in juvenile court today. One tried to plead no contest but by the end of the hearing, that plan fell apart.